Surprising Science — May 18, 2010

Matter Matters

According to Einstein, the universe should be equal parts matter and anti-matter; in other words, we shouldn’t exist, so why do we? Some physicists in Chicago may have the answer.

bigthinkeditor

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

According to Einstein, the universe should be equal parts matter and anti-matter; in other words, we shouldn’t exist, so why do we? Some physicists in Chicago may have the answer. “In a mathematically perfect universe, we would be less than dead; we would never have existed…And yet we exist, and physicists (among others) would dearly like to know why.”

The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Abstract illustration of a figure reaching for a yellow sphere on the left, with colored overlapping circles and concentric arcs—evoking themes of physics and consciousness—set against a vibrant multicolored gradient background.

Starts With A Bang

Does physics truly have anything to say about consciousness?

Many, from neuroscientists to philosophers to anesthesiologists, have claimed to understand consciousness. Do physicists? Does anyone?

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Could dark energy be more negative than a cosmological constant?

The fact that our Universe’s expansion is accelerating implies that dark energy exists. But could it be even weirder than we’ve imagined?

Visualization of a section through the large-scale structure of the universe highlighting cosmic web patterns and distributions.

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Is dark energy just leftover momentum from the Big Bang?

Since 1998, we’ve known our Universe isn’t just expanding, but the expansion is accelerating. Could the Big Bang itself be the reason why?

A man in a suit holds up a Hurricane Dorian forecast map in an office, tracing the storm’s projected path and intensity over several southeastern U.S. states and the Bahamas—echoing the urgent clarity of a 1938 science manifesto defending democracy.

Starts With A Bang

This 1938 pro-science manifesto defended democracy against fascism

As democracy recedes and fascism rises in the USA and around the world in 2025, history provides a lesson in how science can fight fascism.

Illustration of a large particle accelerator facility underground, with scientists working and a city landscape above ground.

Starts With A Bang

A new collider can teach us about the origin of matter

The laws of nature are almost perfectly symmetric between matter and antimatter, and yet our Universe is made ~100% of matter only. But why?

Up Next

Culture & Religion

The Shudder

Frank Kermode tries to suss out what Eliot meant by having “a shudder” while reading, a standard by which Eliot defined good poetry and prose, such as in Tennyson’s In Memoriam.